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[Review] Zuma’s Revenge for XBLA


eminutia

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Zuma's Revenge for Xbox Live Arcade

Developer/Publisher: PopCap Games

Genre: Puzzle, Adventure

Price: 800 MSP

Online: None, except leaderboards and score challenge mode

Zuma's Revenge is a puzzle game first and foremost. I played the first Zuma game a while back, maybe one or two levels in the demo, and I'm pretty sure I was turned off by it immediately. I am not big on puzzle games, never have been, though I was a sucker for a couple of the old school puzzle games, such as Tetris and Dr. Mario, and this game is very similar to it, albeit 20 years after those games came out, it's the same premise.

screenlg8.jpg

There's not much room for evolution of the match-the-colour puzzle game, but there are many ways to spice things up, which is exactly what Zuma's Revenge accomplishes very well. There's not a big story behind the game, except that you are a frog, and there is an evil presence you have to eliminate by shooting coloured balls out of your mouth to match up with the same colour balls which are in columns all around you, before the columns get swallowed by a mouth of doom (that's what I call it). Sound crazy? That's what this game is, it's a frenzy of sight and sound, but the goal is to get past every one of the 70-some levels in the game by doing the same thing. It will test your reflexes, and your ability to breathe easily, but you will have a "ball" doing it!

The sequel has added a bunch of new powerups, score multipliers, bosses, and an interesting "spirit animal" system, which will be explained later. The default adventure mode is the main story, and it is where you unlock other aspects of the game. Each level has a set path and amount of balls you must eliminate before any reach the mouth of doom, or you must start over. Some of the powerups include a laser beam to pinpoint other powerups or multipliers, a spread cannon that will destroy all of the balls in it's path, and a bomb that once detonated, destroys all balls in it's radius. If you reach a certain level score and/or time to beat (you can come back to the levels later), you get spirit points that you can contribute to your spirit animal for various perks. The first animal that you can have is the monkey, and he gives you the chance to obtain fruit. The more spirit points you give your monkey, the more often fruit will show up, and the more points it will give you (kind of like the fruits in Pac-man).

screenlg3.jpg

Every ten levels in adventure mode you complete, you encounter a new boss. Your froggie's perspective changes from the center of the screen to the bottom, kind of like Arkanoid, the you have to destroy the barricades, then once you're able to, shoot enough balls at the boss to kill him. Every boss gets tougher, and some even have minions that will disable your froggie in different ways. One minion actually poisons your frog and he starts to hallucinate, making it tougher to destroy the barricade. These boss battles are the most fun you'll have, and the most humorous as well. When you defeat a boss, you unlock a different part of the world, and if you're lucky, you'll unlock another spirit animal (there are four in total). Going through adventure mode also unlocks different game types, such as a weekly challenge where you try to beat your friends' scores, and another game type which I didn't get around to trying at the time I wrote this review.

screenlg5.jpg

To advance in the later levels will require fast reflexes, and god forbid you are color-blind, they have included an option for you. The in-game sounds are vivid and will keep you coming back, and visuals are quite appealing as well. Replayability of the game is questionable, and unless you like to test your lightning fast reflexes over and over again, there's not much point to it. The novelty is fantastic, and you will have a blast through the first ten or so levels. The price is moderate, and quite a deal if you are a puzzle fanatic, but if you're not then I would pass on it.

Graphics: 9/10

Sound: 10/10

Concept: 9/10

Replayability: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

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Nice review, Em.

It's kind of up to you, but we don't use scores on our reviews really anymore. Your words (and your summary in the last paragraph if you wrote it that way) are your verdict, and you don't want people to just look at the numbers and screenshots and gloss over everything else you've written.

You have a knack for this. As I mentioned before it's important to at least touch on all the bases of the game, story/gameplay/music/sound/etc., and you definitely succeeded in that with this one.

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Thanks man, it's a rough draft on every aspect like you said, surpised by how fast I got it done.

Sometimes you'll surprise yourself. Not quite knowing what you'll write or how you'll word it, finally forming a paragraph, then it shoots off from there and you've written the whole thing in around an hour. Other times you'll struggle to get your ideas down. I've had times where I put down a paragraph or two and didn't know where to go from there, then came back to it the next day with fresh ideas. Sometimes even deleting what amount you've written and going at it with a new approach that flows more smoothly works.

I think the biggest thing I need to work on in writing my reviews is run-on sentences, the overuse and improper use of commas, and the overuse of various words such as, "like", "such as", "however", "though" and other repetitive speech mannerisms. I should check out a thesaurus.

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Very nice, Em.

Did you still want the other code for Orcs Must Die 2? Kev already finished his review. If not, we can give it away on our twitch channel. Let me know.

I had asked and he said that his computer wouldn't handle it. I may be streaming some co-op of Orcs Must Die 2 tonight with Seronx, so we may be able to set something up with that, but up to you. I may only play for a little while then start The Witcher back up.

Weird that it's not on Xbox since the first was. But probably better for Robot Entertainment to publish straight to Steam to be honest. The publisher is listed as themselves, Steam is probably the best place for indie developers right now.

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@em....When you do reviews like this especially ones that you get review codes for they need to go on the main website. I need to send a link back to the company's PR person and it looks more professional sending a web page link instead of what they might take as a forum post. Also make sure that when you post your review, that is officially done. Once one of us clicks the post button on your review, how you wrote it is how it appears. I don't really proof it too much. I do however look to make sure it's not someone elses work which I'm not saying anything by that, it's just we had an issue earlier this year with someone who was taking other writers work and putting their name on it. Thankfully that person was busted before it went on and caused some major issues.

The review did turn out great em. Be proud of your work and most importantly trust yourself. Once you get a few reviews under your belt and get your own writing style down, it will be easy peasy lemon sqeezey. Great job :) :) :) :)

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I don't want to touch it, I want to submit it as is. That way it get's the best raw criticism. If I make edits now it will be like cooking different parts of an already-cooked-and-in-the-fridge fish. Wtf did I just say? lol

There's always room for editing. You can check for grammar, add in a snippet about a feature you forgot to mention, whatever. Just try not to edit too much after the review is out. I only sometimes continue editing after it's out if I catch something in the first few minutes, like tags, or the line break that adds in the "Read More" button so it doesn't fill up the main page too much.

But if you're satisfied with the review, then it's good to go. Not criticizing you, just saying that, myself, I don't like to think "bah it's good enough just release as is" without double checking. Don't worry. This is from someone who edits most of his forum posts once or twice and saves/reloads frequently in games with choices. I may be a bit of a perfectionist lol.

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Zuma’s Revenge for Xbox Live Arcade

Developer/Publisher: PopCap Games
Genre: Puzzle, Adventure
Price: 800 MSP
Online: None, except leaderboards and score challenge mode

Zuma’s Revenge is a puzzle game first and foremost. I played the first Zuma game a while back, maybe one or two levels in the demo, and I’m pretty sure I was turned off by it immediately. I am not big on puzzle games, never have been, though I was a sucker for a couple of the old school puzzle games, such as Tetris and Dr. Mario, and this game is very similar to it, albeit 20 years after those games came out, it’s the same premise.

screenlg8.jpg?m=1343743054

There’s not much room for evolution of the match-the-colour puzzle game, but there are many ways to spice things up, which is exactly what Zuma’s Revenge accomplishes very well. There’s not a big story behind the game, except that you are a frog, and there is an evil presence you have to eliminate by shooting coloured balls out of your mouth to match up with the same colour balls which are in columns all around you, before the columns get swallowed by a mouth of doom (that’s what I call it). Sound crazy? That’s what this game is, it’s a frenzy of sight and sound, but the goal is to get past every one of the 70-some levels in the game by doing the same thing. It will test your reflexes, and your ability to breathe easily, but you will have a “ball” doing it!

The sequel has added a bunch of new powerups, score multipliers, bosses, and an interesting “spirit animal” system, which will be explained later. The default adventure mode is the main story, and it is where you unlock other aspects of the game. Each level has a set path and amount of balls you must eliminate before any reach the mouth of doom, or you must start over. Some of the powerups include a laser beam to pinpoint other powerups or multipliers, a spread cannon that will destroy all of the balls in it’s path, and a bomb that once detonated, destroys all balls in it’s radius. If you reach a certain level score and/or time to beat (you can come back to the levels later), you get spirit points that you can contribute to your spirit animal for various perks. The first animal that you can have is the monkey, and he gives you the chance to obtain fruit. The more spirit points you give your monkey, the more often fruit will show up, and the more points it will give you (kind of like the fruits in Pac-man).

screenlg3.jpg?m=1343743054Every ten levels in adventure mode you complete, you encounter a new boss. Your froggie’s perspective changes from the center of the screen to the bottom, kind of like Arkanoid, the you have to destroy the barricades, then once you’re able to, shoot enough balls at the boss to kill him. Every boss gets tougher, and some even have minions that will disable your froggie in different ways. One minion actually poisons your frog and he starts to hallucinate, making it tougher to destroy the barricade. These boss battles are the most fun you’ll have, and the most humorous as well. When you defeat a boss, you unlock a different part of the world, and if you’re lucky, you’ll unlock another spirit animal (there are four in total). Going through adventure mode also unlocks different game types, such as a weekly challenge where you try to beat your friends’ scores, and another game type which I didn’t get around to trying at the time I wrote this review.

screenlg5.jpg?m=1343743049To advance in the later levels will require fast reflexes, and god forbid you are color-blind, they have included an option for you. The in-game sounds are vivid and will keep you coming back, and visuals are quite appealing as well. Replayability of the game is questionable, and unless you like to test your lightning fast reflexes over and over again, there’s not much point to it. The novelty is fantastic, and you will have a blast through the first ten or so levels. The price is moderate, and quite a deal if you are a puzzle fanatic, but if you’re not then I would pass on it.



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It's been published em. I fixed the images up for you just because the file size for them was a bit large and it tends to post outside of the article width allowments if that makes sense.

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